Table of ContentsJena H.

Maddie T.

Leah H.

Leah H.

Jena H.

Maddie T.

Fusion 2010 100

Hi! My name is Jena. I was born in Galves-ton, Texas. I have lived in Texas my whole life. I have lived in Santa Fe, Leander, and I now live in Austin. I am in 9th grade at LASA High School, and I love it. I love be-ing outside and hanging with my friends and family and my animals. I also like soft-ball, basketball, volleyball, swimming, reading, and everything that has to do with music. Something I think you should know is that I put my life into softball, and in the sum-mer my team and I went to Nationals. It was very fun and challenging. When I get out of high school I want to go to col-lege to be an Architect. I hope you like our magazine!!

Fall 2010200

My name is Leah. I was born in Vic-toria, Texas. I am currently a fresh-man at LASA High School, and I LOVE it here! I like new fashion trends, and I'm always open to trying new things. Talking about make up and other beauty products is one of my strong points. I may not wear it everyday, but I do know a thing or two about it. I am also a complete, total animal lover and I like spending as much time indoors as I do out. E-zine has taught me alot of things, and its been re-ally fun. I hope you enjoy reading our magazine!!!

My name is Maddie. I am a freshman at LASA high school. I was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, and have lived in Denver, Colorado, Atlanta, Geor-gia and Austin, Texas. I figure skate, dance, and am on the lacrosse team. I like shopping, traveling, and being with animals. I like to be outdoors except when there are bugs. When I get out of high school my goal is to go to the winter Olympics for figure skating and to be in the secret service. I love Justin Bieber because he is awesome. I hope you like our magazine!

Dear Readers, We hope you enjoy the first edition of Fusion magazine. Fusion is about fashion, beauty, and music. Our magazine is named Fusion because fusion means to combine two things together, and in our magazine we combine fashion and music. Fusion features style and fashion around Aus-tin and LASA and music locally and in general. Our inspiration magazines were Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and Instyle. These magazines have a lot of bright colors and fun fonts and we want-ed our magazine to incorporate those style ele-ments. We spent a lot of time writing and editing and we hope you enjoy it!

Maddie, Leah, and Jena

The Ugly Truth

Fall 2010400

The truth about beauty pageants and what is wrong with them.

The Ugly Truth

By Jena H

Fusion 2010 500

Art by: M

arissa H.

Fall 2010600

The spotlight is on two young girls, one wear-ing a sparkling pink gown and the other is wearing a flowing tur-

quoise gown. Standing behind them are three young girls in beau-tiful gowns, crying. The judges call out the name of the girl in the turquoise gown. Everyone around them starts shouting hurray, but the girl in pink gown starts to cry. Backstage after everybody got their trophies and all the moms where there, the girl wear-ing the pink gown told her mom, “The reason I didn’t win is because I’m ugly.” Is this what you want to hear coming from a six years old mouth?

I don’t think anyone would want to hear this come from a young girls mouth, but you could hear this more often if little girls keep going into beauty pageants. No little girl should be put thought the horror that is in beauty pageants.I believe that beauty con-tests are about superficial things. They exaggerated focus on superficial beauty. Carleton Kend-rick said, “The fact remains they are called BEAUTY pageants and they have been and always will be based on using arbitrary standards of ‘beauty’ to make one contestant bet-ter than all the rest.” Young girls are learning that they have one charac-teristics which is the total primary importance, and that is there body and their attractiveness. I think

that judging young girls on their appearance. The worst part of all that the young girls have petty cat-egories. In the higher contest levels younger girls need coaches, model-ing lessons, makeup, and multiple outfits. All of this is very expensive and all on beauty, which is some-ones opinion and not everybody would agree on the same things.

Beauty contest also lower self-confidence. Most children’s beauty

pageants do a great disservice to the winners, the losers, and all chil-dren. Also While a certain degree of self-love and value is critical for children Syd Brown, a child and adolescent psychologist practicing in Maryland, feels that pageants tip the scale of what is healthy and natural child development. Parents also complain that their children say that they can’t stop looking so ugly.I think that beauty contest make children unhappy of what

they look like and lowers their self-confidence by making them think that they are not as beautiful as other girls.Last but not least, beauty contests force little girls to grow up too fast. Syd Brown, a child and adolescent, told Abc news, “It is not unusual to see children with highlighted or bleached hair. Some young contestants wear false eyelashes or ‘flippers,’ which are false teeth used to cap missing front teeth.”

Also, one of the concerns of critics like Brown is that the contests push the girls into the realm of sexuality, long before their time. Also some parents have heard their children that they want plastic surgery and that they might have an eat-ing disorder. That some young girls, when they are in beauty contest get spray tans, fake teeth, plastic surgery and other things that are stuff that even teenagers should not do. In conclusion I think that young girls should not be put into anymore

beauty pageants, because when your little you should not be think-ing all about looks, it should be fun and filled with joy. My solution is that parents should not put their girls into anymore beauty pag-eants. ♦

“The fact remains they are called BEAUTY pageantsand they have been and always will be based on using arbitrary standards of ‘beauty’ to make one contestant better than all the rest.”

Fusion 2010 700

Imagine that you download a song on Limewire, and all of a sudden your com-puter goes ten times slower, a virus got onto your computer and takes all of you information, and a policeman comes to your door and arrests you for stealing. All this could happen if you download a copyrighted song off of Limewire.

Downloading songs off of Limewire is not the way to go. It has many consequenc-es and in the end is not worth it. There are some alternatives though, download-ing songs off of iTunes for only 99 cents, or buying albums from CD stores.

Downloading copyrighted songs on Limewire is illegal. Technically, downloading a song that a singer has copyrighted is like going into a store and stealing a CD. Today, thousands of people are getting caught for downloading music. Daniel Arsura, a Hidden Valley freshman, got an e-mail from his Internet provider.”They said that they didn’t appreciate me downloading songs. They threatened that if I didn’t delete Limewire, then they would shut down our Internet.” A Minnesota woman had to pay $222,000 to six recording companies for music that she il-legally downloaded. Now, cities and schools are creating laws and rules that will keep people from downloading illegal music from sites like Limewire. In France, a new law said that internet providers could cancel Internet subscriptions from people who were illegally downloading music. Penalties in Australia include 5 years in jail, a $60,500 fine or a $1320 on the spot fine. At colleges, they have downloaded software that blocks illegal file downloading. For every song illegally downloaded, students will be fined from $750 to $30,000. Downloading these

The truth about Limewire and the implication of

downloading songs off of Limewire.

Limewire Uncovered

By Maddie T

Fall 2010800

songs just isn’t worth the risk of getting caught and either fined or arrested. I think that having punish-ments for downloading illegal music is good because downloading music illegally is just like stealing and therefore should be punished. If someone where to go into a store and steal a CD, you would want them to get a punishment. It is the same with Limewire.Limewire also slows down your computer greatly be-cause of the amount of material that is going through Limewire at any given time. Even when it is not open, the computer will run slowly because there is al-ways music being loaded and downloaded onto the Limewire server and your Limewire server is always searching for new music. This means that if you down-load Limewire and you only illegally download one song,your computer will run slower and take longer to load. Another possibil-ity is that a virus could be downloaded onto your computer from a song or movie, and that virus could slow down your computer. I think that it would be better to just download songs off of iTunes be-cause iTunes will not slow your computer down because it does not need to connect to many different hosts, it only connects to Apple, and also you can not download a virus from iTunes because all of the songs on iTunes are protected by security and Apple is the only one that can change them. I also think that something that slows down your com-puter, even a little bit, should not be used because over time it just keeps getting slower and slower and it is not even worth it to even download Limewire.

If you download a song from Limewire, it could have a virus that could effect your computer. This is because the songs don’t come from Limewire the company, they come from people who download the songs to the Limewire server. By downloading the music you can become a victim or identity theft or financial loss. This quote explains shows why P2P is bad: “The problem is that, without proper precautions, P2P software can allow anyone on the network to gain access to all the files on your computer, not just the ones you intend to share,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “By allow-ing access to private financial or family records, it’s an invitation to identity thieves and sexual predators.” If

you don’t think this will happen to you, or anyone, see what happened to this Seattle man who was sentenced to more than three years in prison for using P2P software to steal personal information and commit fraud. In February, the Federal Trade Comission said it had notified nearly 100 businesses and government agencies that personal information, including data about customers or employees, had been “shared” by their computer networks and was available online. I think that things like this could be a serious problem. If you download information, a song, or share music on Limewire, a person could find out all your personal information, ruining your life. A lot of people might not be aware of this, which is why they download information onto Limewire.

Finally, the art-ists that make the songs aren’t get-ting paid when you download a song off of Limewire. They worked hard on this song, by first going up the long road to fame before they can even think about recording a song, and then working long days and nights on the perfect song to please the audience. Then, a kid goes on Limewire and

downloads the song for free! This is like going into an art gallery and taking a piece of art off of a wall. It is first of all illegal, and second of all the artist worked hard to paint that, and doesn’t deserve to have it just taken away for free. This is what happens when you download a song off of Limewire. Some people might think that the artist gets billions of dollars anyway, but this is not true. They only get a portion of the money made from each sale, and so every song bought counts.

Which is better? Paying 99 cents for a song on iTunes, or downloading a copyrighted song on Limewire and not paying 99 cents, but later having to buy a new computer because yours is too slow, getting fined by the police for downloading music illegally, and getting your personal information shown to the world and bank account cleared. Think about all these negative implications the next time you go to download a song. ♦

“By allowing access to pri-

vate finan-cial or family records, it’s

an invitation to identity

thieves.”

Art C

redit: M

add

ie Troy

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What’s your Fashion Style?Maddie T and Leah H

1. You are at the mall with your friends. What store do you want to go in?

2. You are deciding your outfit in the morning. What do you choose?

a. Hollister or Abercrombieb. Hot Topicc. Puma

a. Flowery skirt and tank topb. Black skinny jeansc. Nike shorts and running shoes

3. You wouldn’t leave your house without your favorite...

a. Sparkly lip glossb. Band’s wristbandc. Ponytail holder

4. How much time do you spend picking out your clothes?

a. 20-40 minutesb. As much time as I needc. Two minutes

5. Your favorite colors are...

a. Pink and other bright col-orsb. As much time as I needc. Two minutes

7. Your favorite pair of shoes are...

a. Flats or sandalsb. Conversec. Sneakers

6. Your favorite accessory is...

a. A heart necklace or ringb. Plugsc. I don’t wear accessories

Fall 2010010

If you chose mostly C’s your fashion style is sporty! You don’t care what you are wear-ing as long as it is comfortable. Some good places to shop are Academy, Lady Foot Locker, REI, and Nike

If you chose mostly B’s your fashion style is punk! You like to wear dark clothing that looks eccentric. Some places to shop are Hot Topic, Interpunk.com, Spencers, and Torrid

If you chose mostly A’s your fashion style is girly! You love to wear cute peices that are very fashionable. Good places to shop are Aeropostale, Forever 21, Nordstroms, and American Eagle

Don’t Be

Cruel

Why animal testing is wrong, and the alernatives we already have access to.

By Leah H

Fall 2010210

Don’t Be

Cruel

A dirty, disgusting room reeking of feces and urine. Loud squeaks and sounds envelope around you, needles and tubes are everywhere, some protruding from cages with blankets covering them. This is a lab that focuses on testing all kinds of

products on animals. Imagine cute, fuzzy creatures, now covered in scabs and blood and crying out for YOUR help.

A n i m a l testing is harmful to the animals that are be-ing abused. The defini-tion of animal testing is the process when animals are put through tests and injections to see how they will react to a certain medical research. Animals also have rights for the reason that they can feel pressure and pain just as humans can. And last, but not least, ani-mal testing is cruel and does not lead to results that could benefit research. There have been instances in which cosmetic companies would hold down little rabbits in vices and spray the cos-metics into their eyes to see if it causes, or could cause, redness, stinging, or even blindness. They also would have baboons strapped down with their heads in vices to do certain cos-metic tests on them. Millions of animals are still used, and even killed, for the very egoistic sake of medical research. Animals have rights, but they can-not defend these rights for themselves; as a result, in comparison to the cases of women`s rights, the aboli-tion of slavery or the ending of the apartheid, there is no state in the world or politician to recognize, in front of the public, animals` rights to live freely and not be killed just for our beauty and medicinal research. The early vivisections (the process of cutting open a living animal without any anesthetic) shed light on biological

functions, but also killed many animals in the process. The University of Pennsylvania had 60 hours of video-tape stolen from a medical lab on campus that showed baboons being knocked out by a blow to the head, while their heads are cemented into plastic helmets. On these tapes also showed baboons waking up in the middle of a surgery while having their brains operated. I think

this is a very se-rious problem throughout the world because alot of researches have no respect for animals’ pain tolerance or their rights. Animal testing should be stopped, or at least reduced by a sufficient amount so that

we can keep our animal population alive and thriving. Animal testing can not always benefit humans because animals do not have the same internal structure as humans. Scientists and researchers argue that ani-

mal research is based on a false premise and that results obtained through animal experimentation can be applied to the human body. Animals not only react differently than humans do to different drugs, vaccines, and experiments, but they also react differently from one an-other. Ignoring this difference has been and

continues to be very costly to human health. The most famous example of the dangers of animal testing is the Thalidomide tragedy of the 1960s and 1970s. Thalido-mide had previously been safety tested on thousands of animals, and was marketed as a wonderful sedative for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers and it suppos-edly caused no harm to either mother or child. Despite this "safety testing", at least 10,000 children whose mothers had taken Thalidomide were born throughout the world with severe deformities.

The University of Pennsylvania had 60 hours of videotape stolen from a medi-cal lab on campus that showed baboons

being knocked out by a blow to the head, while their heads are cemented into

plastic helmets.

By Leah H

Fusion 2010 310

Animals are not good models for human cancer for 2 fundamental reasons: Animals and humans do not get the same diseases. As a result, animal research focuses on artificially inducing symp-toms of human cancer and attempting to treat those symptoms. Experimental drugs and treatments that have been found effec-tive on animal models will not necessarily work in people. "I have studied the question of vivisection for thirty-five years and am convinced that experiments on living animals are leading medicine further and further from the real cure of the patient. I know of no instance of animal experiment that has been necessary for the advancement of medical science; still less do I know of any animal experiment that could conceivably be

necessary to save human life."-H. Fergie Woods, M.DThe National Institutes of Health alone provides over five billion dollars annually into animal experimentation. Abolishing animal research will mean that these resources could be redirected into prevention and the types of research which actually have a chance of advancing human medicine and human health. I think that animal testing for the purpose of medicine and cosmetics has no real purpose behind it. Animals are made differently, and no matter how close our genome or physical structure is to an animal, we are still separate creatures, with dif-ferent reactions and side effects to medicine and cosmetics. There are alternative options for animal testing. Corrositex is n in vitro test to determine skin corrosion. Corrositex uses a biomem-brane and chemical detection system that changes color when it comes in contact with corrosive substances.This could replace the use of rabbits in corrosivity research. Episkin is a model of recon-structed human epithelium, developed to also test skin corrosion. This method was first validated by the European Coalition on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) as a complete replacement for animal tests. EpiDerm is used in the study of skin corrosion and toxicology. EpiDerm is a layered model of human-derived epidermal keratinocytes. The Ames test uses specific strains of common bacteria to detect genetic changes that are caused by test substances. Isolated Chicken Eye (ICE) Test Method uses tissue obtained from slaughterhouses, which would otherwise be discarded, to detect ocular irritants in test substances. I think that these are all really good methods to use as alternatives to animal testing. These methods are only a few of a vast majority of alternatives that exist in the world, and I’m sure that more will be made in the future. Imagine being the one strapped up to tubes, with needles poking inside of your body every which way. Foreign substances being rubbed into your eyes and skin, causing unbearable pain and sometimes even blindness. But no matter how much you cry out, these giants just don’t pay any attention to your personal needs. This is how animals feel, and if we don’t stop testing on them right away, it will only get worse as the years go by. ♦

Fall 2010410

top winter fashion trends

10

12

Maddie T

cuffed jeans

bright colored keds

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365

4baseball shirts

wool peacoats

braided belts

floral scarfs

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6

4

9

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chunky rings

tall boots

long necklaces

floral skirts

10

Confessions of a

Musician

By Leah H

A stage the size of the theater at LASA High School. So big that you can feel the vibrations of the bass. Hundreds of fans screaming and cheering while you play the music you love. This was an opportunity Michael Scaccia was lucky enough to experience. His band was

opening for Jason Aldean, a famous country singer, at the Houston Racetrack.Michael Scaccia is an aspiring musician as well as the Mag-net English teacher at LASA High School. Almost all of the students at the school know who he is and how much passion he has for his music. Scaccia started playing the electric bass when he was 23 years old, and it stuck with him. When he talks about performing for people, it’s almost as if you were right there on stage with him. He says, “[When I play] the whole rest of the world melts away. I just zone out and play my mu-sic, and I see people having a good time. It doesn’t matter if life is good or not, I have to make noise!” It all started at the University of Colorado where he got his degree in English Literature and at the Northeastern Univer-sity for a masters. He later got a performance degree in mu-sic. He found a job in New York City, New York, but told his future employer that he would need three months off so that he could study music with a bass player in Florida. He got the time off and loved playing the bass and studying music so much, that he quit his job and decided to stay in Florida.Scaccia has been with multiple bands, playing all kinds of different music in his 8 years of being a musician. Scaccia does not have a preference of which band was the best to play with, because he believes that they were all unique in their own way. He first got introduced to the idea of teach-ing and being a musician from his friend who is a math teacher in Massachusetts. His friend told him, “It’s really cool to be a teacher and a musician because you can mean something to kids and also be a good role model.” But the thing that really made Scaccia want to teach was when his friend told him that he had a “thing” that might be useful in teaching, and could that he could really mean a lot to kids. Scaccia wanted to see how he could help kids grow up to do what they want to do, while also being able to relate to them.At first, he traveled a lot. He traveled to places like New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri, and all of the major cities in Texas. Scaccia has opened for quite a bit of famous people, including Dennis Quaid and the Sharks, The Wilson Brothers, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Willie Nelson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Lyle Lovett. He says that concerts can get violent sometimes. He enthusiastically brought up a time when a man in Oklahoma got in a fight, during one of Scaccia’s concerts, and knocked out another man who fell on the concrete floor and cracked his skull. He said this was probably the worst thing that has happened at a concert that he can remember.

When he became a teacher, being a musician also had some major conflicts. Scaccia would only get about 4-5 hours of sleep every night when he returned from a gig, and even less on some occasions. He had to sleep in the vans or planes when he was on his way to perform, only to have to wake up in the morning and go teach high school kids. Most of his gigs were in Dallas, so he and his band would drive up there after school, and then return at around 2 in the morning. One of his worst gigs was in Nacogdoches when he came to school like it was a normal day, then left at noon to drive for four and a half hours, and then come right back after his gig. Scaccia said that he only got 45 minutes of sleep that night before he had to come back to school to teach. Although this was one of his worst gigs, his worst week happened to involve 4 gigs back to back. On Wednesday

of that week he played in Waco, Texas, and then went to school and taught the next day. After he was done teaching he flew to Lubbock, Texas and stayed up all night play-ing at a gig. On Friday he went to teach at school again, and then left for Stevenville, Texas the follow-

ing afternoon for another gig. On Saturday he played in Laredo, Texas. Eventually, Scaccia started focusing more on his teaching and quit being in bands because the lack of sleep was too hard on him, and he had virtually no time for grading. He thinks that teaching and music help balance each other out. He said, “Music and teaching feed off of each other. Playing music helps you become a better teacher because you’re so much more outgoing, and teaching helps you not become an egotistical musician.” He says that the highs of being a musician are getting to play in front of people and show them what you’re made of, and getting to hang out with other musicians and learn new things. One of the best gigs that he has had, was when he played for a country singer named Ashley Ray. His band started playing her hit single, and the 2000 people in the audience all started to sing along with them. He said it was one of the happiest times he has ever had. He also said that the low to being a musician is, “Putting your heart and soul in music and having people either not show up, or come just to see people like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.” If he could change anything about being a musician, he says, “I wish that I had started playing music earlier, like in high school.” Michael Scaccia is a genuinely funny man, who stood against the wall in a laid back position with both hands in his pockets, when he said that his dream is to one day be on the David Letterman show, and have a big break. About his overall career in music, he says, “Even if I quit now, it will all have been a major success to me. I’ve recorded half a dozen albums, played [a concert for] 5000 people, for nobody, and for my family and friends.” For one of his new bands, he will get to play most of the gigs in town, and he will only have to play 6 times a month, which will leave him plenty of time for his teaching. With all of the passion and hard work he puts into his music, his dream might one day come true, and maybe one of these new bands will help contribute. ♦

By Leah H

“It’s really cool to be a teacher and a musician because you can mean something to kids and also

be a good role model.”

♪♫♫♪♪

By: Jena H

The magazine Tribeza held 2 fashion shows in the month of September. The names of them are Tribeza: Bob Bullock Fashion Event (this page) and Rock + Runway Men’s Fashion Show (facing page). Here are some pictures of these two fashion shows for men and woman.

The Life of a Stylist By Jena H

Fall 2010220

The pictures in this story where styled by Lauren Smith Ford.

After picking up clothes and spraying Colt McCoy with water, Colt McCoy joins his dad on the football field look-ing very sweaty, like he just finished working out. Lauren Smith Ford knows when the photographer takes his last photo that her job is not done. She still needs to wash the clothes Colt McCoy and his dad were wearing and after

that she has to return them.

This is just one of the jobs Lauren Smith Ford would do. Lauren is a freelance stylist and editor at the magazine Tribeza. She has been an an editor at this magazine for four years and has been a freelance styl-ist for two.

Lauren started liking fashion as well as styling outfits when she was little. “I had two younger brothers and I loved dressing them up in dif-ferent outfits.” Even now she likes dressing guys. Lauren said, “I think there are a lot more options when it comes to women’s fashion, so you kinda have to be more creative to come up with something differ-ent for a guy to wear that works.”

In college Lauren got a bachelors degree in journalism at Texas A&M University. “When I was in college I started a column for the news-paper called ‘Campus Couture’. I would write about different fashion trends going on, and do a photo shoot with it. I have always been in-terested in clothes and how you could put outfits together in a creative way and color.”

Lauren said that she would have done some things differently, “I wish I would have gotten a literature degree then a journalism degree. I think just a broader education would have been more beneficial for me than journalism in the career path I’ve taken...art history or eng-lish lit would have been better.”

When she finished college she worked for a lobbyist for nine month. And then she worked for a car magazine and while doing that she was a freelance writer for Tribeza and then got her job as a stylist there.

“I was freelance writing for Tribeza and the owner of the magazine just asked me to go to lunch with him. We’ve never met so he ended up hiring me over lunch so that’s how I got this job”

So far some of the major companies she has styled for are Bizarre Voice, Texas Monthly, Teen Vogue, Tribaza, AARP Magazine, Outside Magazine, and Elle Girl. She has also styled for Friday Night Lights.

Lauren loves that she gets to run around and style clothes for all kinds of different people.

“I think that its just different every day you never know who your go-ing to meet and like these exciting things can just come up,” she said. “It’s like an adventure. You never know who your going to met or what kind of challenge will be ahead of you. Sometimes you have to find something very specific and it becomes a little investigation or a hunt. I think that every day is different and that its just really fun to in counter alot of interesting people”

For AARP Magazine she styled for George W. Bush. “ It was neat. We went on his ranch and had to get a security clearance. There was all kinds of security every where. It was neat to see his ranch, ‘histori-cal’.”

Fusion 2010 320

Lauren also styled some of the Friday Night Light com-mercials. She had to pick out the clothes and make sure the actors liked what they were going to wear. She said it was more of a high end clothes photo shoot.

To start a photo shoot you need to have a theme or a trend to help with it.

“For a shoot for Tribeza I kinda have creative control

and I would come up with an idea. I kinda think it helps to work off a theme and it could be a trend too. So you start with a theme and that’s usually what I come up with or when I’m working for someone else they will tell me what they want, like Friday Night Lights it was like stay in that pastel like color palate.”

Then from there she has to get the clothes. Which she either buys or borrows.

“So from there if it’s a magazine the stores would let me borrow things for free if its going to run in the magazine because if we do a photo shoot we would run something and then tell what it is and who it’s by and where it is available at. It’s basically like free advertis-ing for them so I would just go to all the stores around Austin and borrow clothes and take them to the photo shoot. Then we create a check list of every thing we borrowed.”

Styling is not just fun and games, just like any other job there is a non-glamorous side to it.

“You really have to be very organized and responsible because you could easily lose something and then you would be responsible for paying for it. Then you steam the clothes to make sure there are no wrinkles in the picture because that’s extra work for the photographer, he has to do in post production. Then you just kinda create outfits and from there you have to find a location for the shoot. Then you have to return it all, so it is a lot

of running and a lot of errands, so it’s not all just fun.”

“ My biggest accomplishment would be Friday Night Lights because being in Austin it’s hard to get jobs like that,” she said. “Just being able to do that because its like on national T.V. and its all stuff I put together so that’s probable been the most exciting thing.”

Some advice she would have wanted to know when she was younger was that you should read blogs about fashion and you should understand what is happening in places like Paris and New York.

Lauren has learned a lot while working as a atylist.

“As a stylist, I have learned that being creative is a big part of it. But, you also have to be detail oriented and organized.”

Lauren can’t wait for her next job. “In the future, I hope to get more styling work and make Tribeza an even stronger product.” ♦

“Its like an adventure. You nev-er know who your going to meet or what kind of challenge will be

ahead of you. “

Behind the

Scenes

Behind the

ScenesThe life of an entertainment lawyer

By Maddie Troy

Fusion 2010 520

♪Throughout his whole life, Don Passman was on the front lines, either playing accor-dion in grade school talent shows or playing lead guitar in his col-lege band, the Rhythm Method. “But,” he said, “it became apparent that my ability to be in the music business and eat regularly lay along the business path.” So, he decided to go into the music industry.

A cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Passman is a music lawyer in Hollywood and negotiates contracts for famous musicians and bands such as Mariah Carey, P!nk, REM, Greenday, Janet Jackson, Miranda Cosgrove and Stevie Wonder. He is listed in the Best Lawyers in America, the top 100 lawyers in California, the top 500 attorneys in America, Hollywood Reporter’s top hundred entertainment attorneys, and Southern California’s Super Lawyers.He has also written three bestselling books about the music business.

His whole life, Passman has been surrounded by music.

“My step-father was a disc jockey, I played music when I was a kid, and I played in bands in college and law school,” he said, “My first show-biz experience was in grade school performing magic tricks during assemblies.”

He was always musical-ly inclined and played guitar, banjo, piano, and a little accordion. Even in Law school, when most people were studying, he was sitting around and playing music.

Passman graduated from UT with a major in history and a minor in psychology and Harvard Law, thinking he would like to pursue the job of a tax lawyer, but soon changed his career.

“I didn’t know there

was such a thing until I got to law school. I thought I was going to be a tax lawyer. I started with a tax firm, thinking I would do tax and entertainment work, and then took a class at USC on the music busi-ness, the class that I now teach, and got so excited. I said, ‘This is fun, it’s not like working.’ So I switched jobs and came over here to become a music lawyer.”

He took a class on copyright and contracts in law school, which were probably the two most valuable classes he could take. But there were no courses on the entertain-ment business.

“If there had been a course on entertainment industry, it would have been really helpful. But there is no magic formula. It’s a mat-ter of persistence, and graduating and doing the best you can in law school. Then you have to go out and get a job at a firm where you can get trained. You have to get into the industry, and that’s where you can learn the specifics about entertainment law.”

For over thirty years Passman has been an entertainment lawyer and has has negoti-ated some of the biggest deals in history, including

t“I always

wanted to be in the music

business, and I thought this was a way to do it and eat

regularly”

Fall 2010620

the $70,000,000 deal for Janet Jackson, and the $80,000,000 for R.E.M. He loves his work, and getting things done for his clients.

“I particularly enjoy taking concepts of business and explaining them to creative people because those two worlds don’t mix and match too well; they’re always at tension with each other. And I like sort of like being at the point where the two meet and seeing how it works together.”

His job involves many things, anything from writ-ing contracts to going to industry events to promote his law firm, Gang, Tyre, Ramer, and Brown, Inc.

“Most of my time is spent negotiating and drafting contracts, dealing with whatever is going on in an artist’s life - whether it’s directly related to their entertainment business or their personal life,” he explained.

He said the best thing you can do to get started in the music business is go out and meet a lot of people.

“A lot of the people I met when I got started, who were kids like I was, are now running the compa-nies and are in important positions in the industry.”

His favorite part about being a lawyer is getting things done and making a difference.

“Doing Janet Jackson’s and R.E.M.’s deals were proud moments, just because when you’re in that position, you can rewrite the rules of how the game gets played and set new standards for everybody,” he said.

Unfortunately, there are negatives to working in the music in-dustry, including getting into fights with people and not getting what the clients want. He says the one thing he would change is making contracts shorter.

“I think I would make the deals a lot simpler. I think they’ve gotten ridiculously complicated over the years. When I started doing this, records deals were 15 to 20 pages. Now they’re 120 to 130 pages. To me it’s sort of insane. I think that most of it is a waste of words and paper and could be done a lot easier and a lot quicker. Admittedly, the world is more complex, but I still think it’s gotten way out of hand. I would make things much simpler.”

Passman says he loves working in the music business.

“I truly love working in the music industry. I love music. I like listening to it. I like playing it. I like being around musicians. I find the whole process exciting and since it’s not something I have the talent to do and make a living as a musician I really get a thrill out of being what I hope to be is considered a key player in musicians’ lives.” ♦

♪ Passman is the presi-dent of the Music Industry Divi-sion, sits in on the national board of The City of Hope, is a trustee of the Art-ists’ Rights Founda-tion, is vice president for the Center for Early Education, and is a Federation Chief in the YMCA Indian Guides Program. He also lectures for the UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium, Har-vard Law School, the American Bar Asso-ciation, the Practic-ing Law Institute, the USC Entertain-ment Law Institute, and the Los Angeles Copyright Society.

BIO

Fusion 2010 720

Leah H

Blackout Poem

love

will always

be

isheartbreak

pretty

feelings in songs

trust

sophisticated

it always begins

personality

Style

knowing,

differently

1.

10.

4.

8.

2.3.

6.

7.

5.

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music is

Fusion 2010 920

Top 10 Pop Songs

1Firework by Katy Perry

2Whats My Name by Rihanna

I think this is a awsome song. I like the meaning of the song. I think it’s about not being afraid to express who you really are on the indside, and about not letting your flaws stop you from hav-ing a great life The video is very good, too. The video helps you see the meaning if it is unclear to you.

I think that this is a good song. This song has a good beat. It has a good video. The song and video are both very interesting. Although I don’t see what the video has to do with the song.

By: Jena H

Fall 2010030

3Raise Your Glass by P!nk

4DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love by Usher

5 Please Don’t Go by Mike Posner

This is a really good catchy song. It’s a good song for a par-ty. It makes me want to get up and start dancing. I like how its for all the misfits and how shes toasting to them. The video is very different and not what I expeced.

This is a very good song. It has a great beat. Great song for a party. Makes you want to get out of your seat and dance. This is probaly a love song for a couple. The video is very good. It fits very good with the song.

I think that this is a good song. This song has a great beat. I really like the video it fits the beat to the song. I like how in the video it looks like its rewinding and forwarding, it looks cool.

6 Bumpy Ride by Mohombi

7 Just a Dream by Nelly

8Shake by Jesse McCartney

This is a good song and it has a great beat. The video is okay but wouldn’t put it for this song. I think it doesn’t look good how he’s singing about one girl and in the video he’s dancing with like 20 girls.

This song is okay. I like the beat. It is very catchy. The vid-eo fits very well with the song. I also like how the first part of the video is a ride on a four runner on a bumpy road.

I think that this song is good. It is such a sweet and sad song how he’s sing about his love and how he thought about their future but then remembered that she left him and how he still loves her. This song has a nice beat. The video to this song is good but I didn’t expect it.

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9 Only Girl In The World by Rihanna

10 Love Like Woe by The Ready Set

I think that this is a good song. Nice beat to it. I like that is a song that every girl would want to feel like. I think the video is strange and doesn’t really fit with the song, but I like the color affects.

This is a good song. Love the beat. It is really catchy and it makes me want to sway to the song. The meaning of the song is that he like this girl and they got together but then she broke it off and he tried to get her back but she didn’t want to. Very good song for a party.I like the video, but it looks as if it has nothing to do with the song. The very end of the video is very strange.

Fusion 2010 330

Horoscopes

aquariusJan 20-Feb 18Love will come when you least expec it on De-cember 29th

when Pluto and Mars align.

sagittarius Nov 22-Dec 21

Dec: Neptune will reveal to you a secret crush so do not

reject any possibilities in this month.

Jan: In this month you might find yourself strug-

gling to keep up with every-one but remember that you are not alone. Look for oth-ers to help you keep afloat.

scorpio Oct 23-Nov 21Interesting

texts will come your way on

the 23rd when the Earth and

Mercurc are op-posite.

libra Sep 23-Oct 22

Uranus will lead some astray, but

some will find un-told riches in un-

usual ways.

virgo Aug 23-Sep 22

Your relationship with a signif-

cant other will be threatened by a

close friend.

leo Jul 23-Aug 22 The sun will

heat up your love life on New Year’s

Eve so expect great things to

come.

cancer Jun 21-Jul 22

Venus will stir up some gossip so make sure to be on everyone’s good side on Jan.

9th.

gemini May 21- Jun 20Make sure not

to get in trouble when Saturn

cools down be-cause you will

regret it.

aries Mar 21-Apr 19

A present will be waiting for you on January 2nd and Jupiter will

show you the way.

taurus Apr 20-May 20

You will be pleasently

surprised when you are gener-ous to others.

pisces Feb 19-Mar 20 Make sure to

compliment your friends on the

13th because they will need encour-

aging.

capricorn Dec 22-Jan 19

Dec: On your birthday make sure to be aware of everyone and keep your friends close

so they do not slip away.Jan: The moon and Saturn will align, leaving you to

question yourself and other around you. Look for a spe-cial someone to keep you on

the right path.

Maddie Troy and Leah Harvey

Winter

Fall 2010430

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Fall 2010630

Thanks To:Kendra Young Micheal Scaccia

Lauren Smith FordDon Passman

TribezaMarissa H.Lynn Jones

and all of our readers